This invention relates to a system for simulating the mobility of a human operator such as a combat soldier.
It has long been the desire of military organizations to provide training for personnel which would be effective in simulating combat situations while, at the same time, maintaining the safety of the personnel. Of course, one approach to doing this is simply to place the personnel in an outdoor training location to carry out planned maneuvers, and possibly conduct simulated war games. The drawback of this approach is that it is more costly to prepare the desired variety of terrain necessary to provide the training personnel with more realistic combat conditions, and to transport the personnel to the training areas and equip all of the personnel. Also, there are safety hazards in placing personnel in the field even though the combat conditions are only simulated. Finally, it is more difficult to monitor the performance of the individual personnel in an outdoor training location and evaluate their capabilities, than would be the case under more controlled conditions.
Although a number of devices have been proposed for providing combatant simulation in a laboratory, such as hand-driven haptic devices for measuring coordination and dexterity, power treadmills for measuring stamina, etc., these devices are severely limited in that they do not allow free, natural movement of the combatant's hands and feet, as would be the case in a real life combat situation. It would be desirable to provide a laboratory-type simulator system where a more realistic combat environment could be simulated for testing a soldier's stamina, skill, reactionability, etc. under more controlled and safe conditions.